Pakistan: Blast at Quetta hospital after lawyer killed

At least 30 people killed in blast and several injured as suicide bomber targets gathering of lawyers in emergency room.

A blast at the accident and emergency department of a hospital in Pakistan’s Quetta, where a group of mourning lawyers were gathered to accompany the body of a murdered colleague, has killed and wounded several.

At least 30 people were killed in the suicide blast on Monday, Quetta police chief Zahoor Afridi told Al Jazeera.

"The blast occurred after a number of lawyers and some journalists had gathered at the hospital following the death of the president of the Balochistan Bar Association in a separate shooting incident early this morning," said Bugti.

Many of the dead appeared to be wearing black suits and ties.

The lawyers were at the unit because earlier in the day armed men, who are still unidentified, had shot Bilal Anwar Kasi, reports said.

Kasi, who later succumbed to his injuries, was the former president of the Balochistan Bar Association. He had been on his way to work when gunmen attacked him.

Several people were wounded as they rushed to leave the hospital, Dawn reported.

Pakistani media said that journalists were among those wounded, with at least one cameraman killed. That cameraman was named by social media users as Aaj TV’s Shehzad Khan.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for either attack.

Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has oil and gas resources but is afflicted by fighting, violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and a separatist rebellion.

Lawyers were gathered at the hospital to accompany their colleague’s body when the blast struck

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